All day long we seemed to dawdle through a country which was full of beauty of every kind. There was a dog howling all night under my window, which may have had something to do with it; or it may have been the paprika, for I had to drink up all the water in my carafe, and was still thirsty. Sometimes we saw little towns or castles on the top of steep hills such as we see in old missals; sometimes we ran by rivers and streams which seemed from the wide stony margin on each side of them to be subject to great floods. I was not able to light on any map or work giving the exact locality of the Castle Dracula, as there are no maps of this country as yet to compare with our own Ordnance Survey maps; but I found that Bistritz, the post town named by Count Dracula, is a fairly well-known place. They are, however, I am told, very harmless and rather wanting in natural self-assertion. When I came close she bowed and said, “The Herr Englishman?” “Yes,” I said, “Jonathan Harker.” She smiled, and gave some message to an elderly man in white shirt-sleeves, who had followed her to the door. At the very beginning of the seventeenth century it underwent a siege of three weeks and lost 13,000 people, the casualties of war proper being assisted by famine and disease. I had for breakfast more paprika, and a sort of porridge of maize flour which they said was “mamaliga,” and egg-plant stuffed with forcemeat, a very excellent dish, which they call “impletata.” (Mem., get recipe for this also.) I had to hurry breakfast, for the train started a little before eight, or rather it ought to have done so, for after rushing to the station at 7:30 I had to sit in the carriage for more than an hour before we began to move.

Fifty years ago a series of great fires took place, which made terrible havoc on five separate occasions. Being practically on the frontier—for the Borgo Pass leads from it into Bukovina—it has had a very stormy existence, and it certainly shows marks of it. It was on the dark side of twilight when we got to Bistritz, which is a very interesting old place. On the stage they would be set down at once as some old Oriental band of brigands. They wore high boots, with their trousers tucked into them, and had long black hair and heavy black moustaches. Sometimes we saw little towns or castles on the top of steep hills such as we see in old missals; sometimes we ran by rivers and streams which seemed from the wide stony margin on each side of them to be subject to great floods. They wore high boots, with their trousers tucked into them, and had long black hair and heavy black moustaches. (Mem., I must ask the Count all about them.) I did not sleep well, though my bed was comfortable enough, for I had all sorts of queer dreams. This may be so, for when the Magyars conquered the country in the eleventh century they found the Huns settled in it. This may be so, for when the Magyars conquered the country in the eleventh century they found the Huns settled in it.

This may be so, for when the Magyars conquered the country in the eleventh century they found the Huns settled in it. At the very beginning of the seventeenth century it underwent a siege of three weeks and lost 13,000 people, the casualties of war proper being assisted by famine and disease. The women looked pretty, except when you got near them, but they were very clumsy about the waist. I was not able to light on any map or work giving the exact locality of the Castle Dracula, as there are no maps of this country as yet to compare with our own Ordnance Survey maps; but I found that Bistritz, the post town named by Count Dracula, is a fairly well-known place. It seems to me that the further east you go the more unpunctual are the trains.